Articles on Coaching​- Integrative Intelligence -

When we are little, it is fun to play with boxes. As an adult, the thought of being placed in a box becomes less appealing. When I first heard about personality profiling I wanted to call BS. This article explores the natural resistance to being "placed in a box" and thought of as "predictable." ...........................................................................................................................................

“The good thing about a skeptic is that they consider all possibilities.” - Thomas Mann

As I sat before my mentor, she looked at me inquisitively.

“I’m a Type 5.” I reported with frustration in my tone.

She could sense my tension and waited patiently for more. I decided to divulge.

“I just don’t think people can be boxed in to stereotypes. People have free will and everyone on this planet is so unique. I just feel typing people limits them and could even be used to cast premature judgment.” There I said it.

“Ah.” She nodded. “It’s not that your concerns don’t have truth to them. At what point does any asset become a liability?” she asked me.

Ironically, and true to my type the Type 5 “Truth Seeker”, I went home to investigate my skepticism.

That was over a decade ago. What fascinates me, as I look back, is that a bigger truth about personality typing was revealed to me. However, it did not find me through any sort of logical-neatly packaged conception that was my preference.

I sat in meditation one morning a few weeks after I fervently rejected being typed. That morning a bigger, more meaningful answer came to me.

It is not the person that is so predictable, but their ego is.

Ego is predictable, because ego is developed through a series of reactions that create patterned responses. We call these our defense mechanisms or conditioned ways of being. Not to be confused with our hard-wiring that we are born with.

The Enneagram, one personality soft-ware tool, teaches us that part of our human work is to overcome the limitations of the personality and our conditioned responses. Therefore, when we use any personality assessment as feedback and as a short-cut to see our blind spots, we save years of fret, wonderment or banging our head against the wall.

The Course in Miracles teaches us we do not have to learn through pain alone. We have the option of learning from love (think positive lessons versus negative). I now celebrate the opportunity to learn through positive pathways, new awareness’s and my favorite, short-cuts to evolve out of ego and into a completely new possibility of my choice.

When we are no longer bound and constricted by our past conditioning, we are free to reach those new heights we've been drooling over and aching to experience deep down.